SHINJUKU WILD, CHAPTER ONEby rukia
Chapter 1: Homecoming
2015
Kurosaki Ichigo breathed in the icy November air at the front entrance of his former home. Nearly 2 years had passed since he last spent even one night here, but he knew that people never change – especially not the people he knew the best. They probably saw the incident on TV last night, so he gripped the strap of his duffle bag tighter and braced himself for the circus that was about to begin.
Since the building also functions as his father’s clinic, the glass front doors were unlocked. Several people Ichigo recognized as old neighbors sat in the waiting room and looked up as he entered. He put his shoes away on the rack and smiled half-heartedly at some of their silent greetings. Folk in this town rarely move elsewhere, it seemed.
Ichigo noted that nearly a dozen people were waiting for check-ups. Perhaps his father would be too busy to notice him. Perhaps, if he was quiet and minded the squeaky 10th step on the stairway, he could sneak up to his old room and take a nap before Yuzu found out.
“Oi! Ichi’s back!” Perhaps Karin would walk up right behind him and announce his arrival.
“Shit...” he muttered.
Two voices from different rooms rang out down the hallway, “HE’S BACK!?!”
Ichigo spun around glaring at his sister, who leaned against the doorway holding up a camera, “Karin! What are you –”
“Say cheese,” Karin warned him with a vicious grin.
A flash of light wreaked havoc on Ichigo’s retinas at the same moment two bodies rushed up and tackled him from behind. “UGH! Dammit~!”
“Brothe~r, how COULD you!?” Yuzu balled her hands into his shirt and cried into it. “How could you be so cruel to poor, sweet Don Kanonji-san!?”
“I can’t believe you would embarrass such an awesome spiritual medium on national television!” Isshin had his son in a headlock as he also cried out his woes, “The very own fruit of my loins performing such a shameless act of betrayal!”
“Karin,” Ichigo choked out, as he tried to pry the rest of the family off of him. “Help me, damn you!”
“Sorry, Ichi,” Karin snapped another photo and carefully stepped around the struggling bodies, ignoring the gawking patients behind her. “I’m busy taking the family photos. New Years is coming up, you know.”
It wasn’t hard for him to fathom what was really going on, “The old man bribed you!”
Karin rolled her eyes at him, “Cry me a river, why don’t you.”
“I am NOT old!” Isshin suddenly piped up, defending his honor, “Special Daddy Killing Technique – BEARDO RUB!!”
“Oh, hell! Get him off me!” Ichigo cringed in abject horror as his father's prickly goatee rubbed across his cheek repeatedly, “For fuck’s sake, man, I’m too old to put up with this crap! This is freaking gross!”
“Brother, you big meanie!” Yuzu continued to sob against Ichigo’s chest. She stubbornly wrapped her arms around torso, unwittingly restraining him. She had quite an iron grip for a slim 23-year-old.
Karin picked up her brother’s discarded duffle bag and slung it over her shoulder before she raised the camera again. Aiming the chaotic scene within its sights, she muttered, “Welcome home, Ichi,” before snapping another digital photo.
~*~*~
“I don’t get it,” Karin said as she helped Yuzu and Ichigo set the table for dinner. “I thought there were all kinds of interviews and training courses that a guy has to take before being accepted into the police force.”
Yuzu nodded vigorously as she set out the teddy bear shaped chopstick holders, “Yeah! And then it takes years of walking the beat in the dangerous ghetto before earning a detective badge.”
Karin and Ichigo stopped and stared.
“What?” Yuzu blinked innocently and tucked a lock of waist-length orange hair behind her ear, “It was on TV.”
Ichigo shook his head as he took a plastic container of pickled vegetables out of the fridge and handed it to Karin, “Not everything is like you see on TV, Yuzu. I was a special case. They needed someone who could see spirits and I was the perfect choice.”
Karin spared him a skeptical look, “Yeah, right. I doubt the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would advertise for spirit mediums in the Classifieds. It sounds more like you went over to headquarters and ‘convinced’ them that they needed one.”
“It’s amazing what a 30-minute conversation between the police commissioner and his late mother can do for a guy’s career,” Ichigo smirked.
“When do you start work?” Karin asked as they all moved back and forth around the kitchen, making quick work of putting the food out on the table.
“Monday,” he answered while he deftly moved out of Yuzu’s way as she walked by carrying the rice cooker. “Since the benefits of my, er, 'previous employment' included that apartment in Roppongi Hills, I moved out long before I told Kanonji that I quit. I figured I could crash here for a while.”
“Yet you came with only one bag of clothes,” Karin pointed out, “Don’t tell me you set fire to your earthly possessions in effigy.”
“No, I’m not that crazy,” he shot back. “I sent most of my stuff to Chad’s flat in Shibuya. He said he’d look after all of it until I find a new place.”
“And he went to so much trouble to get you that interview with the commissioner. He’s so nice! But...” Yuzu pursed her lips together as a new thought came up to puzzle her, “why didn’t you ask to stay at his apartment? It’s right near Police Headquarters, isn’t it?”
“I probably would have,” he frowned. “But Chad’s partner on the force also happens to be his roommate and, man, I can’t stand that obnoxious jerk sometimes.”
“So you’ll stay here for a while?” Yuzu asked hopefully.
“Not for long,” he admitted. “Just a week or two.”
“Yipee!” Yuzu nearly skipped across the linoleum floor, “Karin’s staying for the weekend too! This will be just like old times!”
“Right...” Ichigo began to pour the miso soup into bowls and hand them to his sisters. As he handed Yuzu a warm bowl, he asked, “So, how are things at the day care center?”
“Wonderful!” Yuzu beamed. “The kids are so cute and working there helps my studies a lot. I’ll be ready to take the teaching exams next month!”
“That’s good. How about you, Karin?” he asked as they took their seats around the table. “How’s life with the Yokohama Marinos?”
“It’s good that I signed on with them, because they need all the help they can get. My only real complaint is my new apartment – it’s down near Landmark Tower and the waterfront. It gets too damn crowded in that area. I hate crowds,” Karin leaned back in her chair and scratched her short-cropped hair absently. “I settled into the team though – I think I’ve earned the coach’s respect, which is tough because that guy is such a hard-ass.”
“See? It’s a good thing you stuck with soccer, Karin,” Yuzu said. “Dad was only against it because he hates seeing another one of us move away.”
“Speaking of Dad,” Ichigo picked up a pair of chopsticks and paused, “Do we have to wait for him to finish closing up?”
Karin’s “Nope” was drowned out by Yuzu’s “Of course we have to!”
“Ok, ok...” Ichigo put down his chopsticks with a sigh and reached for the TV remote. He wasn’t about to argue with Yuzu, since she still lived here at the clinic. Unlike Karin and himself, it was still her home.
However, Karin didn’t go by the same reasoning. As she tried to persuade Yuzu to forget Beardo and let them eat, Ichigo faced away from the bickering and channel surfed on the TV at the opposite end of the room.
Tonight on - *click*fzzt* - armed men - *click*fzzt* - third in a series of mysterious deaths in Shin - *click*fzzt* - we’re here to speak with noted spiritualist, Don Kanonji, who – *click*click*click*fzzt* -yasha! Sit, boy! *click*fzzt*
“That was Don Kanonji-san!” Yuzu exclaimed, startling Karin out of her argument. “Change back! Change back!”
Ichigo gave a disgruntled snort as he flipped channels again, “In your dreams, Yuzu.”
“Meanie!” she yelled. Before Yuzu could reach over the table and wrestle the remote out of her brother’s hands, Isshin bounded out of the hallway and rammed right into his son.
“Unhand the remote, Ichigo! By Daddy’s decree, you are hereby banned from TV!” Isshin yelled, wrangling the controller out of Ichigo’s hands. “It’ll rot your brain,” he added self-importantly as he flipped back to the channel with the Don Kanonji interview.
“Then turn it off,” Ichigo turned away from the set. “There’s not much left of your brain as it is; wouldn’t want to rot the rest,” he said as he raised his bowl of soup for a sip.
That comment earned Ichigo a well-timed elbow against the head, courtesy of his TV-enthralled father. The force of the blow knocked half of the warm soup down his shirt and the other half straight up his nostrils. Ichigo choked and gagged on the miso, cursing violently, “Damn you, Dad!”
Yuzu hushed him as she strained to pay attention to the broadcast. Karin, who sat beside her sister, snorted impatiently and started to eat.
“As many of your fans witnessed last night during your guest appearance in ‘Amazing Popular Mysteries’, a very strange event occurred. Could you relate to us what happened, Mister Don Kanonji? This time, we would like to hear it from your side of the story.”
Ichigo groaned. He wiped the excess soup off his face with a napkin and hurriedly dug into his meal. The faster he finished, the less he would have to hear of Kanonji’s blubbering.
“Well, you see,” Don Kanonji took on a charismatic air which seemed to mean he was about to impart a Secret of the Unknown to the ignorant populace, “I was performing an extremely delicate spirit mediation for the poor Ms. Kobe, in front of an audience of millions,” he enunciated carefully, “when, to my horror – I sensed a disturbance in the force!”
Karin suddenly coughed and choked on her glass of juice, trying hard not to laugh. Yuzu hushed her, but didn’t take her eyes away from the screen. Apparently, Kanonji’s studio audience was also eager to hear what Kanonji had to say next.
“W-what kind of disturbance, Mister Kanonji?” the announcer asked haltingly.
“Well, you see,” Don Kanonji spoke conspiratorially, unaware that he was being repetitive, “usually, my #1 pupil, Kurosaki Ichigo, would observe the exorcisms and mediations from the safety of backstage in order to get a taste of the glamorous life of a spirit medium such as myself.”
Ichigo snorted rudely, but felt a growing sense of dread constrict his chest. Kanonji had just announced his name on national TV. That can’t be good.
“The boy and I have a very deep, spiritual relationship,” he continued, unaware that such a comment could probably get him arrested in several countries, or at least on the cover of a few British tabloids. “Our telepathic bond is so strong, that I am constantly aware of his thoughts while performing spiritual readings.”
As Kanonji went off on a short tangent about the intricacies of telepathic bonds on TV, Karin gave Ichigo a curious look over the table. He mouthed the words ‘hidden mike’ and pointed at his ear. She nodded in understanding.
“While I was performing last night, I sensed a dark cloud shrouding my pupil’s mind,” Don Kanonji lowered his tone for dramatic effect, “and before I could stop him – he proclaimed that he would no longer remain under my tutelage and stormed out of the studio! I couldn’t go after him because, as you well know, I had to keep my trusting fans at top priority – I had a mediation to finish, after all. I thought that if I visited him after the show, I could find out what happened and help him in any way I could.
“Unfortunately,” Don Kanonji pulled out a frilly white handkerchief from his sleeve and dabbed his eyes, “I’ve found no trace of him. His apartment was completely empty except for the autographed photos that I give him every year as his New Year’s bonus. His cell phone isn’t in service, no matter how many times I’ve called,” he then added hurriedly, “and he was nowhere to be found on the psychic plane!”
“Oh... I see,” said the announcer in awe. “So what could have caused him to quit and leave?”
“Well, it’s obvious!” Don Kanonji exclaimed.
Ichigo glanced up at the TV in surprise. Had the message finally penetrated Kanonji’s thick skull? Had he finally figured out that, after years of demeaning work, his PR assistant was never coming back?
“My dear pupil in the spiritual arts has been...” Don Kanonji paused to build suspense, “...mind-controlled!!”
Gasps and shrieks emitted from the live audience. Apparently, one woman in the back row feinted.
Ichigo sighed and polished off his meal before carrying the bowls to the sink. He couldn’t help the feeling of disappointment and disgust that weighed him down. Some things were too good to ever be true. Kanonji getting a clue was one of those things.
“Indeed, an evil spirit must have preyed upon him while I was occupied in other matters. Oh, forgive me, boy, for I was unable to protect you!” Don Kanonji moaned tragically.
Ichigo simply prayed that the 2-bit psychic wouldn’t hound him for the rest of his life.
Suddenly, Don Kanonji’s attitude took another 180 and he looked up at the audience with hope shining in his eyes, “Fortunately, I know of a way to save him! All of us must send our message loud and clear that we want him back! If he hears us on the psychic plane, he will surely overcome the demon controlling him and return to the fold!” He stood up and raised his arms beseechingly, "Now! Everyone repeat after me: COME BACK BOY!!!"
In the living room, Yuzu and Isshin knelt in front of the TV and took up the mesmerizing chant, “Come – back – BOY! Come – back – BOY!”
As Ichigo mounted the steps to his room, he prayed a little harder.
~*~*~
To be continued...
~*~*~
Teaser for Chapter 2: Renewal
Ichigo starts on his first case and gets assigned a new partner, who also happens to be someone he knew from a long time ago. This is also the chapter where you get to find out why it's called "Shinjuku Wild". ^_~
Chapter 1: Homecoming
2015
Kurosaki Ichigo breathed in the icy November air at the front entrance of his former home. Nearly 2 years had passed since he last spent even one night here, but he knew that people never change – especially not the people he knew the best. They probably saw the incident on TV last night, so he gripped the strap of his duffle bag tighter and braced himself for the circus that was about to begin.
Since the building also functions as his father’s clinic, the glass front doors were unlocked. Several people Ichigo recognized as old neighbors sat in the waiting room and looked up as he entered. He put his shoes away on the rack and smiled half-heartedly at some of their silent greetings. Folk in this town rarely move elsewhere, it seemed.
Ichigo noted that nearly a dozen people were waiting for check-ups. Perhaps his father would be too busy to notice him. Perhaps, if he was quiet and minded the squeaky 10th step on the stairway, he could sneak up to his old room and take a nap before Yuzu found out.
“Oi! Ichi’s back!” Perhaps Karin would walk up right behind him and announce his arrival.
“Shit...” he muttered.
Two voices from different rooms rang out down the hallway, “HE’S BACK!?!”
Ichigo spun around glaring at his sister, who leaned against the doorway holding up a camera, “Karin! What are you –”
“Say cheese,” Karin warned him with a vicious grin.
A flash of light wreaked havoc on Ichigo’s retinas at the same moment two bodies rushed up and tackled him from behind. “UGH! Dammit~!”
“Brothe~r, how COULD you!?” Yuzu balled her hands into his shirt and cried into it. “How could you be so cruel to poor, sweet Don Kanonji-san!?”
“I can’t believe you would embarrass such an awesome spiritual medium on national television!” Isshin had his son in a headlock as he also cried out his woes, “The very own fruit of my loins performing such a shameless act of betrayal!”
“Karin,” Ichigo choked out, as he tried to pry the rest of the family off of him. “Help me, damn you!”
“Sorry, Ichi,” Karin snapped another photo and carefully stepped around the struggling bodies, ignoring the gawking patients behind her. “I’m busy taking the family photos. New Years is coming up, you know.”
It wasn’t hard for him to fathom what was really going on, “The old man bribed you!”
Karin rolled her eyes at him, “Cry me a river, why don’t you.”
“I am NOT old!” Isshin suddenly piped up, defending his honor, “Special Daddy Killing Technique – BEARDO RUB!!”
“Oh, hell! Get him off me!” Ichigo cringed in abject horror as his father's prickly goatee rubbed across his cheek repeatedly, “For fuck’s sake, man, I’m too old to put up with this crap! This is freaking gross!”
“Brother, you big meanie!” Yuzu continued to sob against Ichigo’s chest. She stubbornly wrapped her arms around torso, unwittingly restraining him. She had quite an iron grip for a slim 23-year-old.
Karin picked up her brother’s discarded duffle bag and slung it over her shoulder before she raised the camera again. Aiming the chaotic scene within its sights, she muttered, “Welcome home, Ichi,” before snapping another digital photo.
~*~*~
“I don’t get it,” Karin said as she helped Yuzu and Ichigo set the table for dinner. “I thought there were all kinds of interviews and training courses that a guy has to take before being accepted into the police force.”
Yuzu nodded vigorously as she set out the teddy bear shaped chopstick holders, “Yeah! And then it takes years of walking the beat in the dangerous ghetto before earning a detective badge.”
Karin and Ichigo stopped and stared.
“What?” Yuzu blinked innocently and tucked a lock of waist-length orange hair behind her ear, “It was on TV.”
Ichigo shook his head as he took a plastic container of pickled vegetables out of the fridge and handed it to Karin, “Not everything is like you see on TV, Yuzu. I was a special case. They needed someone who could see spirits and I was the perfect choice.”
Karin spared him a skeptical look, “Yeah, right. I doubt the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would advertise for spirit mediums in the Classifieds. It sounds more like you went over to headquarters and ‘convinced’ them that they needed one.”
“It’s amazing what a 30-minute conversation between the police commissioner and his late mother can do for a guy’s career,” Ichigo smirked.
“When do you start work?” Karin asked as they all moved back and forth around the kitchen, making quick work of putting the food out on the table.
“Monday,” he answered while he deftly moved out of Yuzu’s way as she walked by carrying the rice cooker. “Since the benefits of my, er, 'previous employment' included that apartment in Roppongi Hills, I moved out long before I told Kanonji that I quit. I figured I could crash here for a while.”
“Yet you came with only one bag of clothes,” Karin pointed out, “Don’t tell me you set fire to your earthly possessions in effigy.”
“No, I’m not that crazy,” he shot back. “I sent most of my stuff to Chad’s flat in Shibuya. He said he’d look after all of it until I find a new place.”
“And he went to so much trouble to get you that interview with the commissioner. He’s so nice! But...” Yuzu pursed her lips together as a new thought came up to puzzle her, “why didn’t you ask to stay at his apartment? It’s right near Police Headquarters, isn’t it?”
“I probably would have,” he frowned. “But Chad’s partner on the force also happens to be his roommate and, man, I can’t stand that obnoxious jerk sometimes.”
“So you’ll stay here for a while?” Yuzu asked hopefully.
“Not for long,” he admitted. “Just a week or two.”
“Yipee!” Yuzu nearly skipped across the linoleum floor, “Karin’s staying for the weekend too! This will be just like old times!”
“Right...” Ichigo began to pour the miso soup into bowls and hand them to his sisters. As he handed Yuzu a warm bowl, he asked, “So, how are things at the day care center?”
“Wonderful!” Yuzu beamed. “The kids are so cute and working there helps my studies a lot. I’ll be ready to take the teaching exams next month!”
“That’s good. How about you, Karin?” he asked as they took their seats around the table. “How’s life with the Yokohama Marinos?”
“It’s good that I signed on with them, because they need all the help they can get. My only real complaint is my new apartment – it’s down near Landmark Tower and the waterfront. It gets too damn crowded in that area. I hate crowds,” Karin leaned back in her chair and scratched her short-cropped hair absently. “I settled into the team though – I think I’ve earned the coach’s respect, which is tough because that guy is such a hard-ass.”
“See? It’s a good thing you stuck with soccer, Karin,” Yuzu said. “Dad was only against it because he hates seeing another one of us move away.”
“Speaking of Dad,” Ichigo picked up a pair of chopsticks and paused, “Do we have to wait for him to finish closing up?”
Karin’s “Nope” was drowned out by Yuzu’s “Of course we have to!”
“Ok, ok...” Ichigo put down his chopsticks with a sigh and reached for the TV remote. He wasn’t about to argue with Yuzu, since she still lived here at the clinic. Unlike Karin and himself, it was still her home.
However, Karin didn’t go by the same reasoning. As she tried to persuade Yuzu to forget Beardo and let them eat, Ichigo faced away from the bickering and channel surfed on the TV at the opposite end of the room.
Tonight on - *click*fzzt* - armed men - *click*fzzt* - third in a series of mysterious deaths in Shin - *click*fzzt* - we’re here to speak with noted spiritualist, Don Kanonji, who – *click*click*click*fzzt* -yasha! Sit, boy! *click*fzzt*
“That was Don Kanonji-san!” Yuzu exclaimed, startling Karin out of her argument. “Change back! Change back!”
Ichigo gave a disgruntled snort as he flipped channels again, “In your dreams, Yuzu.”
“Meanie!” she yelled. Before Yuzu could reach over the table and wrestle the remote out of her brother’s hands, Isshin bounded out of the hallway and rammed right into his son.
“Unhand the remote, Ichigo! By Daddy’s decree, you are hereby banned from TV!” Isshin yelled, wrangling the controller out of Ichigo’s hands. “It’ll rot your brain,” he added self-importantly as he flipped back to the channel with the Don Kanonji interview.
“Then turn it off,” Ichigo turned away from the set. “There’s not much left of your brain as it is; wouldn’t want to rot the rest,” he said as he raised his bowl of soup for a sip.
That comment earned Ichigo a well-timed elbow against the head, courtesy of his TV-enthralled father. The force of the blow knocked half of the warm soup down his shirt and the other half straight up his nostrils. Ichigo choked and gagged on the miso, cursing violently, “Damn you, Dad!”
Yuzu hushed him as she strained to pay attention to the broadcast. Karin, who sat beside her sister, snorted impatiently and started to eat.
“As many of your fans witnessed last night during your guest appearance in ‘Amazing Popular Mysteries’, a very strange event occurred. Could you relate to us what happened, Mister Don Kanonji? This time, we would like to hear it from your side of the story.”
Ichigo groaned. He wiped the excess soup off his face with a napkin and hurriedly dug into his meal. The faster he finished, the less he would have to hear of Kanonji’s blubbering.
“Well, you see,” Don Kanonji took on a charismatic air which seemed to mean he was about to impart a Secret of the Unknown to the ignorant populace, “I was performing an extremely delicate spirit mediation for the poor Ms. Kobe, in front of an audience of millions,” he enunciated carefully, “when, to my horror – I sensed a disturbance in the force!”
Karin suddenly coughed and choked on her glass of juice, trying hard not to laugh. Yuzu hushed her, but didn’t take her eyes away from the screen. Apparently, Kanonji’s studio audience was also eager to hear what Kanonji had to say next.
“W-what kind of disturbance, Mister Kanonji?” the announcer asked haltingly.
“Well, you see,” Don Kanonji spoke conspiratorially, unaware that he was being repetitive, “usually, my #1 pupil, Kurosaki Ichigo, would observe the exorcisms and mediations from the safety of backstage in order to get a taste of the glamorous life of a spirit medium such as myself.”
Ichigo snorted rudely, but felt a growing sense of dread constrict his chest. Kanonji had just announced his name on national TV. That can’t be good.
“The boy and I have a very deep, spiritual relationship,” he continued, unaware that such a comment could probably get him arrested in several countries, or at least on the cover of a few British tabloids. “Our telepathic bond is so strong, that I am constantly aware of his thoughts while performing spiritual readings.”
As Kanonji went off on a short tangent about the intricacies of telepathic bonds on TV, Karin gave Ichigo a curious look over the table. He mouthed the words ‘hidden mike’ and pointed at his ear. She nodded in understanding.
“While I was performing last night, I sensed a dark cloud shrouding my pupil’s mind,” Don Kanonji lowered his tone for dramatic effect, “and before I could stop him – he proclaimed that he would no longer remain under my tutelage and stormed out of the studio! I couldn’t go after him because, as you well know, I had to keep my trusting fans at top priority – I had a mediation to finish, after all. I thought that if I visited him after the show, I could find out what happened and help him in any way I could.
“Unfortunately,” Don Kanonji pulled out a frilly white handkerchief from his sleeve and dabbed his eyes, “I’ve found no trace of him. His apartment was completely empty except for the autographed photos that I give him every year as his New Year’s bonus. His cell phone isn’t in service, no matter how many times I’ve called,” he then added hurriedly, “and he was nowhere to be found on the psychic plane!”
“Oh... I see,” said the announcer in awe. “So what could have caused him to quit and leave?”
“Well, it’s obvious!” Don Kanonji exclaimed.
Ichigo glanced up at the TV in surprise. Had the message finally penetrated Kanonji’s thick skull? Had he finally figured out that, after years of demeaning work, his PR assistant was never coming back?
“My dear pupil in the spiritual arts has been...” Don Kanonji paused to build suspense, “...mind-controlled!!”
Gasps and shrieks emitted from the live audience. Apparently, one woman in the back row feinted.
Ichigo sighed and polished off his meal before carrying the bowls to the sink. He couldn’t help the feeling of disappointment and disgust that weighed him down. Some things were too good to ever be true. Kanonji getting a clue was one of those things.
“Indeed, an evil spirit must have preyed upon him while I was occupied in other matters. Oh, forgive me, boy, for I was unable to protect you!” Don Kanonji moaned tragically.
Ichigo simply prayed that the 2-bit psychic wouldn’t hound him for the rest of his life.
Suddenly, Don Kanonji’s attitude took another 180 and he looked up at the audience with hope shining in his eyes, “Fortunately, I know of a way to save him! All of us must send our message loud and clear that we want him back! If he hears us on the psychic plane, he will surely overcome the demon controlling him and return to the fold!” He stood up and raised his arms beseechingly, "Now! Everyone repeat after me: COME BACK BOY!!!"
In the living room, Yuzu and Isshin knelt in front of the TV and took up the mesmerizing chant, “Come – back – BOY! Come – back – BOY!”
As Ichigo mounted the steps to his room, he prayed a little harder.
~*~*~
To be continued...
~*~*~
Teaser for Chapter 2: Renewal
Ichigo starts on his first case and gets assigned a new partner, who also happens to be someone he knew from a long time ago. This is also the chapter where you get to find out why it's called "Shinjuku Wild". ^_~